My Nervous System Likes Receiving Money for Work That Isn’t Punishing

For the Worldbuilders Ep. 071

Nick Cave (b. 1959, Fulton, MO; lives and works in Chicago, IL), Soundsuit Series

“The creative spirit is as much a process depending on our receptivity as it is a process depending on our willful conjuring up.”

— Distilled from June Jordan’s “The Creative Spirit and Children’s Literature” in “June Jordan Solves the Energy Crisis: Love is Lifeforce” by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Dear Worldbuilder,

My intention inside this episode is to invite us to put some respect on our nervous system. We have done the journaling, we’ve cultivated all our embodiment practices on our walks and by the water. We’ve done the divination, breath and mirror work to bring us to this moment where our nervous system is prepared to hold us at our next level of practice. There are new invitations, new calls and new assignments we desire to expand into, but moving in fear might be sneakily disguising itself as “honoring our nervous system”. Our craving for predictable outcomes and comfort can encourage us to play small inside the vision for our creative practices and lives. Inside this episode I invite us to consider the ways we can honor our nervous system by welcoming the transformative discomfort of desire.

Some Threads we pulled inside today’s episode:

“Repeat after me: “This is sacred work and I know exactly how to do it.” Let it be true.” — Ayana Zaire Cotton

“You know how in some braid shops there’s a person that starts the braids then all of a sudden there’s a group of folks finishing them? What if we created offers like that? Just because we plant a seed, doesn’t mean it’s ours to water alone. Invite others to braid the loose ends with you.” — Ayana Zaire Cotton

Tune into the 71st episode “My Nervous System Likes Receiving Money for Work That Isn’t Punishing” on the podcast For the Worldbuilders via Spotify or Apple Podcast. Let me know what you think by replying to this email. 💌

So be it, see to it, breathe through it,

Ayana

Seeda School News

Cover of March Workbook inside The Treehouse featuring Christina Sharpe who gave us the framework of “Wake Work”

In today's workshop inside The Treehouse we will design a recyclable and reliable form for communicating a variety of messages from week to week. A container for your channeling, a format for your weekly dispatches, workshops, coaching calls, essays, meditations, podcasts and more. Frameworks are so important because they act as vessels for our storytelling, providing creative constraints that empower creative permission.

We will learn how to save time and skip overwhelm by never starting from scratch through studying the methods of artists and scholars like:

• Saidiya Hartman

• Tina M. Campt

• Christina Sharpe

• Alexis Pauline Gumbs

• Legacy Russell

• Rizvana Bradley

• The Black Panther Party

• and more...

Finding your form allows you to stay focused and run wild at the same time. If you’re a Treehouse member join us inside the workshop at 12pm EST today.

‼️ NEW DATE ANNOUNCED ‼️

I'm overflowing with gratitude that I’ve been invited by my dear friend and collaborator Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo and The Black School (operated by Joseph Cuillier and Shani Peters) to offer a reading at the upcoming collective altar-building workshop, “ITS ALL OUT OF MY ARMS” at the ICA on Saturday, March 8th at 5pm. I’ll be reading an excerpt from the first chapter of the novel I’m currently incubating which follows the story of Seeda, a non-binary biotechnologist living in an abolitionist community, named Cykofa, seeded by black feminist ancestors. Offering this reading, for the first time, alongside Alexis De Veaux on the occasion of the Dear Mazie, exhibition which celebrates black queer architecture and worldbuilding is a dream too wide for words. Truly humbled by this invitation. See you there?